What has this world come to???...I got the power back!

[GabeS14]

Ok, to start off I just want to say that today after a long ass time, my car is running perfect, when I mean perfect I mean 350-370hp perfect!

And I have to thank Luisgonz for it. he is the magic man, he knows his shiet!

(How can we not trust out local shops anymore?)
(how can professional mechanics that fix SR's for a living let such simple mistakes go by due to pure negligence and trying to make quick big bucks)
I always thought hat you get what you pay for, so this time i wanted to do it right and decided to pay high$$$ expecting to get great results..
I got royally screwed!!!.below is my story...it is long, but please read, I know some of you have been there, and some of you will.. so read:

As some of you that know me may know I blew my first SR, about 2 years ago. I still knew very little about the motor so I took it to a shop that was recommended to me.
The shop was ran by
Terry henderson (drift buffet-land-ho etc)
and
Earnie Fixmer(team Rotora-D1-and currently works local shop)

they charged me $900 to pull the motor and tell me what was wrong with it.
eventually they called me and told me I had a blown motor, and I needed to rebuild or just get a new one.
I decided to rebuild it.
I was charged another $2800 to rebuild the motor to stock specs, but adding a headgasket and headstuds.
they promised me I would have a stong running motor that they would guarantee.
On the day I went to pick up my car, while on the phone with them they warn me that my car sounds like a subaru???
WTF???
I was like what do you mean like a subaru? did you guys fix it? they continuously argued that my tunning must be bad, thats why it wont drive well. my argument was "I have a jim wolfe) tuned ecu, it ran very strong before the blown engine, if you rebuilt the motor why wouldn't it run strong now?
so i decide to take the car and buy a Power FC to have it tuned again, wondering if the ecu went bad??or maybe they fucked somethign else up, anyways it had been a few months already and I needed a car to drive, and they promised they would look at the car again if I needed it.
...car ran like shit for almost a year..

During that time I took it to 2 shops and even had Steve shadows come to my place to look at it, but no one could find out what the issue was.
Steve actually got close, he said he knew it was Timing, but even after adjusting the timing it still ran weak.he recommended I get it tunned properly on a dyno, which i still plan on doing soon.
after buying the power fc, I took the car back to Earnie Fixmer 2 more times he played with the timing, continued saying it was my tunning, and on one occasion even tuned my power fc for me(base tune) but the car still ran weak..
I called Terry a few times, but never got answers, so eventually gave up, earnie couldnt make it work, terry was unreachable.
at this point I had gotten to know Luis(Luisgonz) from Zilvia, and he promised me he would take a look at the car.
this morning I showed up at his house early in the morning, and he got to work, checked vac lines, wiring, cleaned it all up, and then moved on to under the valve cover, where emediatley he noticed that the timing alignment marks were OFF, way off...
the timing was sooo retarded that the car could never run, there was no acceleration. I had acutally mentioned this to Earnie and Terry a few times, (about the possibility of it not being at TDC) I had read up about it.
I just want to say how most "tuners" when dealing with timing issues dont wanna get down and dirty, tryign to do the minimun possible and getting paid the max.
How can a shop that deals with SR's on a daily basis miss something like this?(this is one of the most important things to watch for when assembling the motor)
I just dont get how there could have been such negligence and disregard towards my car,,,even after having got paid big$$$$
$3800???to rebuild a motor to stock specs??? I know I got ripped off, and the worse part is they probably didnt even rebuild the motor they prob just swapped out a different one and didnt mind to make sure it ran well..
and everyone knows that with the money I paid them I could have bought a whole new motor!
To finish this off I just wanna give huge PROPS to LUISGONZ ...this man knows his shit! He charged me close to nothign to fix it,
I recommend(highly) to anyone near los angeles
Fineline tunning (his in-house business name)is the way to go

:
(also just to clear up, my comments on disregard do not apply to steve, he just was not able to find the prob at the time!)since he only had about an hour to look at the car)I will prob be hiiting him up to due the dyno tune soon!

If this is in the wrong section please move Mods,

[MikeisNissan]

Damn I would give you some rep but it ran out in the S13silviagirl thread. I wonder what Earnie Fixmer thought of this..

[MikeisNissan]

LUISGONZ is the man.

[tt99ol]

congratulations on getting the car running man
i bet it feels good finally
and steve will give you a badass tune to top it off
just wait til you can rail on it knowing its reliable

[hustlervibes]

Congrats on getting the car working! Luis does know his stuffs.

[luisgonz]

this guy called Wolf45 actually tried to neg rep me on here(grey square) and called me F** for posting this...wtf?
he didnt even have the balls to post in here, but calls me a F**???

I hope you know It was Alex, He just doesnt have enough Rep to give you a green+rep,LOL I think he was playing a joke on you.hahahaha:keke:

[essforteen]

It helps to find an honest person to give you a helping hand good job to luis and yourself on getting it running. now you can go to the track and have some fun:2f2f: woohoo!!

[mRclARK1]

I have a learned distrust of shops. Some are decent, but many are just out to make quick bucks with little work and will do the MINIMUM (if even that) to try to max profits. Friends, personal contacts and connections and private deals for a few bucks or a couple beers, or whatever is fair for the work, are the way to go IMHO.

Great you got your car running strong. :rawk:

[azndoc]

That sucks.

I have a couple of friends that started off with Ernie back in the days on Oki.

Both of them say that he's a total douchebag now days.

[jspec240]

Damn man TIMING is critical... Good to hear the problems are over tho... Im gonna have to come test drive it to make sure it works :naughty:

Good on ya Luis!!!

[Xandy Boosts]

Im gonna hit up luisgonz in the near future to weld up my blastpipes. Saw his work in the premie build threads, amazing work man

[racepar1]

Most shops have their bitches actually do the work while the guys that actually know what's up collect the money. I am willing to bet that's what happened here. The minimum wage laborers, probably acquired south of the border, fucked it up and the guys in charge were total douches because it was warrantied. So typical in the automotive industry.

[GabeS14]

I hope you know It was Alex, He just doesnt have enough Rep to give you a green+rep,LOL I think he was playing a joke on you.hahahaha:keke:

Aha..yea just found out
lol..thx..
I was pissed!..like WTFD??hehehe
picking him up 730 am?

[GabeS14]

Most shops have their bitches actually do the work while the guys that actually know what's up collect the money. I am willing to bet that's what happened here. The minimum wage laborers, probably acquired south of the border, fucked it up and the guys in charge were total douches because it was warrantied. So typical in the automotive industry.

I agree..but in this case, according to my conversation with Terry Henderson, shortly after him and Earnie fixmer split ways, and closed their old business, each to go to a new shop..he said Earnie had the typicall
"star drifter" attitude..
"I dont wanna go work on that peice of shit car"
since my engine bay was dirty and my first sr swap was shitty even though it was fast it was rigged..wires hanging..worn out stuff..etc..
you get the idea..
this guy works on superstar D1 cars..then has to work on my sorry ass S14..getting paid ahead of time..makes it even esier to kick to the side and slack off..
but what gets to me is the fact thgat even though i kept telling them time after time..somethign was up with my motor it was not normal..please check it out..they never did..
they allowed to leave their shop..running like shit..knowing it was not put together right..

[MADE]

Glad you put the info out there. Being in Socal its easy to fine a shop that will work on an SR,RB,CA etc but its hard to find one with exprience and not just milking the teet. At least its actually documented for people looking in the future about the quality of service these people performed.

[blownmotor]

If he is truly a technician he would work on any car regardless if it was a total mess or not. Welcome to the REAL world where not every car is setup professionally and clean and ease to work on. And the whole cam timing thing obvioisly show who ever worked onit or diagnosed it in the begining was lazy or did not look/pay attention on what he was doing. Skill, honesty and craftsmanship are getting scarce these days.

[Jimmy Up]

man, thats some shit brotha- thanks for the heads up and glad to hear that thanks to other people on here, you were able to get it going good.

And I think you are right, if they REBUILT the motor, there is no way in hell that it would have been that off- I have a really hard time believing otherwise. I would say count your losses, but $3800 worth is a lot of counting. It just sucks when YOU have to be the ginuea pig and everybody on here knows you wont be the last that they do this to...

Stay up man.

-Mike

[j6250]

Sorry to hear you lost all that money and time but glad to hear you're car is running good. All that hp must be nice:boink: . Have fun man but be safe

[jimmytango00]

The thing with Luis is that, he was born with this gift. we are all born with God given talents, for Luis its cars. He focuses on the smallest details and he just knows his shit. I know he wont admit to it, but this isnt just a hobby for him, its his passion.

Luis is the only person i trust with my car.

[GSXRJJordan]

Glad to hear you got it fixed Gabe, I wouldn't have popped the valve cover if you'd have brought it over here lol. +rep for Luisgonz.

[WERDdabuilder]

did you ride his "horse" while you were at his house?

glad to hear everything is well now.

[luisgonz]

did you ride his "horse" while you were at his house?

glad to hear everything is well now.

How do you know about maxamillion.Haha But really?

[blueshark123]

ive been threw the samething wit my car congrats on having the car back to normal

[jimmytango00]

Maz is like the Mexican Clifford.

That dog has drank about two gallons of anti-freeze and oil in his life time, hahah jk.



How do you know about maxamillion.Haha But really?

[luisgonz]

Well Im glad your car is back to running Condition I can tune it for you If you like. Remember I wont charge you until its good and gravy.

[jimmytango00]

Gabe let him tune it! SHIT!

[GabeS14]

Well Im glad your car is back to running Condition I can tune it for you If you like. Remember I wont charge you until its good and gravy.

hmm..we gotta rent a dyno tho..Im'e dying to know exactley how much HP..its at.
I have the Powerfc at home, jim wolfe tunning runs fast as fuck, but i am sure the power fc will do even better
!
Thanks to all that chimed in,
It was pretty emotional for me feeling all the power back..after 2 years..
ask Alex, Luiz bro..when i went to test drive it after he adjusted the timing..and the car got so sideways in 4000rpm..first gear, i almost shit myself..
my legs were shaking when i went to get gas...lol..more of happyness/anxiety..lol... I felt like a little bitch..haha

[GabeS14]

did you ride his "horse" while you were at his house?
glad to hear everything is well now.
Ahahaha...i didn't..lol..max is cool..very chill dog.. expet for when the neighbours dogs come near the fence, he tries to chew the wooden fence..lol..he actualy ate half of the main beam of the fence.its like a 2x6" and he ate threw it..lol

[singlecamslam]

Thats awesome man, glad you got your car the you want to, its a good feeling. Hope shit like this doesn't happen to anyone, i never go to shops because they all look shady. Went to THE SHOP once and never going again.

[Phlip]

Gabe, I made the information presented here and in PM exchange into a review thread for you:
http://www.zilvia.net/f/showthread.php?t=195670
Anything more if I missed it, let me know.

[300hp owen]

Thats awesome man, glad you got your car the you want to, its a good feeling. Hope shit like this doesn't happen to anyone, i never go to shops because they all look shady.right on! it feels SO DAMN GOOD to be able to romp on the throttle after getting a big issue like this all figured out. props to getting help from a fellow Zilvia member! if you dont know someone at a shop you can easily get taken for a lot of $$$ and time.

man you better hope they built that motor right. hopefully the timing is the one last thing they had to do and they just brainfarted at that point.

[ROIDMONKEY]

totally heard u man. same thing (sorta) happened to me , guy tuned my car (shop in fl) blew one of my piston didn't say a word about it, he let me go with out saying anything , anything, i found out the next day cause i felt the car running weak . wtf. yes the shop name is japtrix in riviera beach fl

[WISH ONE]

oh wow... TERRYOSIS SPEC hope your motor lasts... but glad you got your car fixed bet it feels good. GL

[steve shadows]

That was the next thing on the list CAS Base Timing (set off marks for TDC.chain/synch).

It was getting dark and didnt have the time to take the valve cover off (man that was a long time ago now haha) Glad it worked out for you, knew it was CAS related.

A simply diagnostic check applies to things that can be done without taking the engine apart in any way.

I do all my diagnostics at the shop now, no more field, because we have all the nessicary gear.

Checking for whether or not the cas was punched properly at TDC is another chunk of time etc

So the cam timing was off and the CAS was punched off? lol wow-

[GabeS14]

That was the next thing on the list CAS Base Timing (set off marks for TDC.chain/synch).
It was getting dark and didnt have the time to take the valve cover off (man that was a long time ago now haha) Glad it worked out for you, knew it was CAS related.
A simply diagnostic Checking for whether or not the cas was punched properly at TDC is another chunk of time etc
So the cam timing was off and the CAS was punched off? lol wow-

Yea they were way off, I think the right Cam shaft was pointing to just about what would be 1:30 if looking on a clock.. left one was ok, but right one was waaayy off!

[luisgonz]

Actually The Intake cam was off By 3-4 teeth and the Exhaust was 2-3 teeth. I really didnt count how many teeth where off, But just knew it needed to be Put on mark. And Yes doing Field work You need to carry and take all tools That you think you could use in any case. The good thing about Gabe was that I gave you "If I dont fix it I will Continue to work on it till I figure it out" Quote, I dont ask for any payment Till Im done with it. :naughty:

I Fixed and Removed Intake manifold to fix vacuum Lines Cleaned up the Lose wires and covered Exposed wired, Checked Compression Replaced One non Working Coil pack, Removed and welded up a New blow off valve. I even Checked his stereo System.LOL

[GabeS14]

yea it was an all day work, i actually was dehidrated by the time we finished at 8 pm!we had started at 930 am or so?
i was more watching than anything else, so i imagine Luiz who was working, was worn the fuck out!

[luisgonz]

I think I just spent only 5 hours working on it. And no you were not at my house at 9am. I think it was around 10:30am.

[GabeS14]

Gabe, I made the information presented here and in PM exchange into a review thread for you:
http://www.zilvia.net/f/showthread.php?t=195670
Anything more if I missed it, let me know.

thanks a lot to PHLIP,
and please guys check out this review thread too!

[Ernie]

I wonder what Earnie Fixmer thought of this..

When I find Earnie, I'll let you know what he thinks!

Actually The Intake cam was off By 3-4 teeth and the Exhaust was 2-3 teeth. I really didnt count how many teeth where off, But just knew it needed to be Put on mark.

From my experience, if the timing was off by that many teeth, the car wouldn't run at all.




Which brings me to my next point. I have years of experience working under the hood with hundreds of satisfied drivers, and like you've posted, yes, I've tuned "super tuner cars", as well. Which doesn't take from the fact that I like to work on ALL cars, from your SR to my wife's CA; even to the mkIII supras I'm currently tuning at the shop. The shop, which by the way, is still in the same location that you brought your car to two years ago. I've been here for 5+ years, and not planning on going anywhere soon.

My "super star drifter" attitude? I don't know what you've heard about me around the industry, but if anyone has had problems with anything I've done/said, this is the first I'm hearing of it. I know I'm not perfect, but I thought people would have had the decency to approach me about a problem if they were offended in any way. Just for the record, I was not born a pro drifter or into a race family or into the drifting industry by "luck"; I have thousands of hours on the streets and under the hood of my old and new cars, just like most of you. So if you're just loosely tossing the "super star" and "douchebag" label around, I encourage you to at least hold one conversation with me about my roots before making that decision to continue to do so.

I don't normally post on forums; mainly because I'm busy ensuring that the work I do is up to par with my customers' expectations, as well as pushing the limits of industry standards, but I heard about this post from my wife, who in turn heard about it from a friend. And I felt that before any of you pass judgment on myself or my shop, give me the decency to hear what I have to say... There are always two sides to every story:

First of all, I'm not here to "defend" myself; I just don't think it's right to slander anyone's reputation without even trying to rectify it with them personally. I have no recollection of you "talking to me" about working on your car, and that I "don't want to work on it"? I love working on cars. And if I had truly made a mistake on your car, as you claim, I would have done everything in my power to make things right in order to retain and preserve the reputation that I and my shop have. Regardless of what you post here, the fact is that we haven't spoken to each other after you left my shop satisfied (to my knowledge) with the services that we had agreed upon (except for a text I RECENTLY received from you about a part you were looking for).

You may have come into contact with Terry during these past 2 years. Let me just make you aware that Terry is no longer associated with EF Madness, as he has made the decision to move on to other business ventures (Drift Buffet, drifting in China, etc).

Now, the facts about your incident: The WRX comment was simply referring to the loud decibel exhaust. Your car came into the shop with a blown motor. I replaced the engine and made it run on the power fc, which was what we discussed and agreed upon. I put nothing but the best available parts in your engine (as I do with all my customers); S14 tensioner (not S13), timing was by the book when your car left. I specifically told you that it wasn't fully tuned, and that you were responsible for the custom fine-tuning (in order to accommodate your larger turbo and cam settings, different size injectors, air flow meter, etc.) which was not agreed upon as my shop to fix your car "to stock". I gave you several ecu tuning options, and you chose to keep the base map from the power fc. I warned you of the implications involved in doing so, and that you would eventually need to have it professionally tuned on a dyno.

I work on cars. I work under the hood. I'm a driver. I'm a mechanic. My wife, my current partner, and my friends will be the first to tell you that I'm a hell of a better driver/mechanic than a businessman. I currently still do not handle the money aspect of this business; it's handled by my new partner. So if you think I "ripped you off", then it should have been discussed with me at the time, in the past, or even now before causing this stir. I had not even had the thought of having "ripped you off", because, again, you had left satisfied with the services provided that was discussed prior to working on your car.

So now that I presented the facts, here is my opinion: I feel like there is something that you're leaving out; these events just don't make sense to me. I worked on your car almost 2 years ago, and this incident is just now surfacing? If it was a problem, you could have come to my shop anytime within these past 2 years or gotten a hold of me somehow. I would speculate more on this, but will glady do it in person or in private. But just know that my personal opinion on this matter is that something definitely does not add up.

Just for the record, I'm not "shady" or just here to "make a buck". If that were the case, I'd have been packed up and gone a long time ago. I'm here because of my passion for the sport and sharing it with people that have the same love (and yes, this means that you are free to come by the shop anytime to see for yourself).

If you need to discuss matters in more detail, please feel free to contact me at ernie(at)erniefixmer(dot)com or simply come by the shop. I rarely frequent forums (like I said before), so it would be safe to say that I don't check messages on here.

Thanks for your time,

Ernie "Super Star Douchebag Shady Drifter to Steal Yo' Dolla" Fixmer

:2f2f:

[GabeS14]

Earnie, i responded in the other review thread, as well as on your myspace, i sent you a message pls read/!

[GabeS14]

Ernie contacted me personally and I am satisfied!
+1 for that!
Also offered to do work on the car free of charge if necessary which i think is awesome!